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A Blessing For Trees: Poems Upon The Skies

Dear Readers, if you have not yet encountered the work of Ilene Winn-Lederer you are in for a treat. I’m reblogging one of her posts so that you can acquaint yourself with her marvelous Torah-themed mystical art.

Like the universal languages of music and art, trees speak to us without words, inspiring us to describe them with our own words and visual expressions. In Deuteronomy (Devarim) 20:19-20, we learn that even in wartime is life precious and that trees are essential to our continued existence: “When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy its trees by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayst eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down; for is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by thee?…” Equally eloquent are the words of the late Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran in his collection of aphorisms, Sand And Foam: “Trees are poems the Earth writes upon the sky…”.

I was reminded of these ideas during our recent observance of Tu B’Shevat

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rabbiadar

Rabbi Ruth Adar is a teaching rabbi based in San Leandro, CA. She has many hats: rabbi, mom, poodle groomer, and ham radio operator K6RAV. She blogs at https://coffeeshoprabbi.com/ as the Coffee Shop Rabbi.
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7 thoughts on “A Blessing For Trees: Poems Upon The Skies”

Hi Rabbi, Thank you so much for following my blog brotmanblog.wordpress.com I believe you are the first rabbi to join me in my search for the roots of my Jewish family, and I welcome any comments you may have. You might find my post on Jewish naming patterns interesting as well as my attempt to translate my great-grandfather’s headstone.

I look forward to reading your posts. One can never have enough Jewish education!

Dear Rabbi Ruth:
I’m so pleased that you enjoyed my recent post, ‘A Blessing For Trees’ and I thank you very much for the re-blog! Had some lovely responses this morning, especially from one of your followers in Italy!
Best Regards,
Imaginarius